Bush Institute conference focuses on Afghan women

In this March 30, 2005, file photo, then-first lady Laura Bush meets with a carpet merchant while visiting grant recipients from the Afghan Women’s Business Council’s Artemis Program at Kabul University in Kabul, Afghanistan.

DALLAS — Former first lady Laura Bush says women in Afghanistan are creating their own economic opportunities and that entrepreneurship will be highlighted at a conference this week at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

About 250 people including government, business and nonprofit leaders are set to attend the conference and exchange ideas on helping Afghan women achieve economic success. A dinner was planned for Wednesday night, and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is to address attendees via video today.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul and students from the American University of Afghanistan also will participate in a portion of the conference by video.

“What we’re hoping is to show our strong support for women in the economy,” Laura Bush told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A longtime supporter of women’s rights in Afghanistan, the former first lady made trips to the country after the Sept. 11 attacks. She said research shows a country’s economy is more prosperous when its women are included.

Some Afghan women fear their government’s efforts to reconcile with the Taliban, who severely repressed and brutalized women. Girls were not allowed to go to school, women spent most of their time inside their homes and were forced to wear burqas or long flowing garments that covered their heads, faces and bodies.

Today, Afghan women serve in the Afghan legislature, own businesses and work as teachers, lawyers, community health workers and prosecutors. Still, though, some women walk the streets in burqas — a sign that Afghan women are still silenced and disrespected in their male-dominated society.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently said the United States would step up efforts to build international support for Afghan reconciliation. The Afghan government has had contacts with high-ranking Taliban officials, but no formal negotiations are under way.

Clinton has said that finding a political solution to end the war would require the Taliban to renounce violence, sever ties with al-Qaida and respect the Afghan constitution and the country’s laws, particularly as they apply to women’s rights.

Laura Bush also has spoken out on the issue of reconciling with the Taliban. In an op-ed in October 2010, she wrote that “peace attained by compromising the rights of half of the population will not last. Offenses against women erode security for all Afghans — men and women.”